Now this one is a favourite of mine – a film that doesn’t often see the light of day unfortunately but it is a good action packed adventure

Van Heflin and Ruth Roman star but there seems little chemistry between them although Ruth Roman looks very beautiful in those African locations – in fact the locations were Studio Sets on the backlot of Universal in Hollywood with some location work in the US plus stock footage – but to me, it all works pretty well.

I must have said this before, but again this is a film I saw many years ago in St. Albans where we always holidayed and stayed with my Mother’s family. So it would be shown at either The Odeon on London Road, The Gaumont or The Chequers – the Odeon is now the wonderful Odyssey Cinema after being saved from extinction by the local hard working community

The film made in Hollywood by Universal Pictures, TANGANYIKA (1954) takes place in 1903 in the territory of East Africa

The story is of a hunt for a fugitive white man who’s stirred up the a tribe of natives into making raids on white settlements. Directing the hunt is John Gale (Van Heflin) who leads a group of native porters from East Africa into Tanganyika.

On the way he picks up Peggy Marion (Ruth Roman), a schoolteacher from Canada, and her young niece and nephew (Noreen Corcoran, Gregory Marshall), after rescuing them from a native attack that killed Peggy’s brother. He also picks up a wounded white man, Dan Harder (Howard Duff) who, we learn early on, is the brother of the renegade white man, although he keeps that little fact a secret.